Capital crime: Three remanded in police custody for child’s murder

Police say the suspects have confessed to killing Sunil Masih over a business dispute.

FAISALABAD:

Factory Area police were on Saturday granted physical remand of three men arrested in the killing of the child found stabbed and burnt on August 19.

Crime Investigation Agency Superintendent of Police Raja Zameer Ahmad told the media that the suspects had confessed to having killed Sunil Masih, 12.

He said the police had also recovered the weapon used to kill the child.

Sunil Masih’s family and other residents of Christian Town had been demonstrating since August 21, when the burnt body found from near Chamra Mandi (hide market) Chowk was identified by Yaqoob Masih, father of the deceased.

A post mortem examination carried out at Allied Hospital had stated that there were 23 wounds on the body.

SP Ahmed identified the suspects as Akram Masih, a resident of Chaudhry Chowk; Imran Masih, a resident of Christian Town; and Saleem Mubarak, a resident of Chak 287-JB in Toba Tek Singh.

He quoted the suspects as saying that they had killed Sunil Masih over a business dispute.

“They said Sunil had owed money to Imran for liquor he had been getting from him on credit for several months,” he said.

The SP said Akram Masih had picked up Sunil Masih from his home on August 18 and taken him to the Chamra Mandi Chowk where Irman Masih and Mubarak were waiting for them.

He said the suspects stabbed the child to death and then set the body on fire to prevent identification.

Station House Officer Masood Nazeer had told The Express Tribune on Friday that Patras Masih, a neighbour of the child’s family, had tipped them on to the suspects.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Yaqoob Masih said he was satisfied with the progress in investigation into the death of his child. He said some neighbours had told that Sunil Masih had left home on August 18 with Akram Masih. He said he had not reported this to the police.

He said he had registered a kidnapping case with Gulberg police after Sunil Masih did not return home till late that night.

The body was found dumped on a roadside the next day by Ali Raza, a constable in Factory Area police station, who was returning home after work. Factory Area police had later registered an FIR in the matter on Constable Raza’s complaint.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2012.